Locust Insect InvasionPictures of Locusts

The locust insect is an undesirable garden pest to say the least. They arrive in great numbers, grow with supernatural speed and eat voraciously. Find out what we did to sop the locust invasion in our yard.

Locusts are very destructive members of the grasshopper family. There are several different types of locusts. Most that I have seen in my yard look like the gold and black bug in the image above but, earlier this spring, I discovered a horde of black locust infants on the west wall of our Central Florida home.

They were so small, I mistook them for love bugs and did not spray them.

What a mistake!

In a month, they were 7-10 times the size and easily recognizable as the landscape destroyers they are.

They were everywhere. And they were eating big holes in my plants.

They would meet on my purple Bougainvillea vine to plan their strategies over lunch. More of my newly planted bok choi went into their bellies than ours.

During this time, my strategy was to hand pick and kill them one by one. I quickly abandoned this idea.

Some types of locust insects have thorns in their hind legs. If you try to grab them, you will get stuck. Fabric gloves will not protect you.

Also, there were just too many of them. When I saw a group of locusts eyeballing the Plumeria tree I brought back from Hawaii, I decided I needed a more comprehensive solution.

How to Stop a Locust Plague

In 15 years of Florida gardening, this was the first time I had ever been under locust attack. Vaguely remembering a bible verse about taking counsel before waging war, I ran straight over to my neighborhood hardware store to seek advise.

They had done battle with this pest before and knew how to defeat it.

They sent me home armed with a bottle of Ortho Bug-B-Gon Max.

As for the defective valve reviews on Amazon, we've bought several bottles of this product and have never had this problem.

The next morning, Tiny drenched every plant in our yard with it. Over
the following week, we saw fewer and fewer locusts each day.

Tiny's Tips for Stopping a Locust Invasion

Start spraying as soon as you notice the locusts. The smaller
they are when the product is applied, the higher the kill rate will be.
Once the locusts mature, the spray becomes much less effective.

Spray the yard again 7 days after the first application.

Apply the product in early morning during dry weather when there is no rain in the forecast for at least 48 hours.

If
you had a locust insect problem during the previous growing season, don't
bother waiting until you see the pests to spray. Just apply the
Bug-B-Gon in early spring.